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When a Jewish boy became twelve, he was considered a son of the law, and was required to visit Jerusalem three times each year, on the three great fetables held once a year. Jesus first visit to Jerusalem marks the culmination of the proceeding years of training in the house at the synagogue of Nazareth. At the he assumed the full responsibilities that rested upon every faithful jew. Thereafter, all the provisions of the Law were binding upon him.

It requires little imagination to follow the group from the home in Nazareth as they accompanied the boy on his first pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they arrived there, they celebrated the solemn Passover meal. The introductory prayers, the impressive ritual, the dramatic attitudes of those who took part, and the historic associations which the scene recalled, aroused the patriotic and religious impulses which had been lying dormant in the young Nazarene. The Passover recalled Jehovah’s past and deliverance of his people and the sacred obligations which they owed to him and to all the needy members of their race.

The occasion made such an impression on Jesus that when his parents started home he did not join them, and it was till nightfall, when a search was made,that they discovered him to be missing. They returned to Jerusalem where they found him in the mist of doctors of the Jewish law, asking them questions about it.

I as sure you would like to know how Jesus looked as he came into his manhood, but the writers of the gospel leave us in the dark. Luke’s statement implies he had a well developed bode and an attractive face and figure. Carpentry would have giving him strong arms and a fine physique, and living with God would have giving him a look of sincerity. One who was to inspire such love and devotion as Jesus drew from his followers must have had an unusually attractive manner and appearance a fitting vehical for an elevated mind and heart. If only they had left a painting of him, but since that is not so it is enough to know his mind and heart and that we can feel his spirit as he moves into his manhood.